Sun
by Crescent Moon Dancer
Summary: Who better to understand a Jinchuriki than another Jinchuriki? And yet, some people cannot be fully understood. But sometimes those like them can see them better than others.


Some say the desert is the hottest place on earth; miles upon miles of burning sand, with a ruthless, blazing sun that absorbs all moisture and plays with one's mind and eyes, and heat waves so intense they're almost tangible. But for me, nowhere in the world was as cold as Sunagakure - the Village Hidden in the Sand. Nowhere on this planet was more chilling than the desert in which I grew up.

Pain, rejection, and all-consuming loneliness - that is the lot of a Jinchuriki, no matter the village from which they hail. For the first twelve years of my life, that was all I knew; rejected and feared by the other villagers, hated by my own family, I grew up in darkness, an outcast, swallowed up by my own hate and twisted thinking.

Then I and my brother and sister attended the chunin exams in neighboring Konohagakure, and everything changed. Because then I met Uzumaki Naruto.

Not for nothing do the Leaf shinobi refer to him as the number one hyperactive knuckle-headed ninja. Loud mouthed, abrasive, somewhat clueless and altogether annoying, there was a time when I wanted nothing more than to unleash my sand upon the Konoha Jinchuriki and compress him into goo. And yet, there was more to the aggravating blond than met the eye.

There was something different about him, something on which I couldn't quite place my finger at first. It wasn't until my battle with him that I realized what it was.

Naruto has friends.

There are people about whom he cares, and people who care about him - something that's unheard of for a Jinchuriki. We are loners, ostracized and vilified, living forever outside the realm of warmth and companionship, loving and loved by none but our own selves. We fend for ourselves, and only ourselves, living each day as though we are trapped behind walls of ice, through which the outside world sees us in a distorted way.

Not so Naruto.

Of course, as a child, he was treated by his village as all of our kind are treated. He knows only too well the pain of utter rejection, of being trapped in solitude for one's entire childhood, of standing alone against a wall of cold eyes, ruthless and judging and fearful. He knows what it is to be a Jinchuriki. But somehow, he has friends. There are people who care about him, to the point of sacrificing their lives for him, and now I know why.

Because Uzumaki Naruto is the sun.

Not literally, of course. The sun still hangs in the sky, baking the sands of my home to extreme temperatures and giving the desert the reputation of the hottest place in the world. But if the sun were to fall from space and take on a human form, that human would be Naruto. He detects darkness within people and forces his way in, chasing it away and filling them with light and warmth. As a child, he did not rest until he had dispelled his own darkness, never giving out and never giving in, and now he dispels the darkness of others. Just like the sun.

Needless to say, he cannot reach all the darkness. Wherever there is light, there will always be shadows, but shadows are easily combated, and easily conquered; likewise, light can be stifled by overwhelming darkness.

But not the sun. And not Uzumaki Naruto. For they both possess a light too strong to be suffocated by any amount of darkness, and will continue to conquer it with that light for as long as they endure.

How do I know this?

Because Naruto shone on me. He dispelled the darkness that consumed me, and gave me the strength and purpose to hold the shadows at bay. He filled me with a warmth that I had never known before; the warmth of friendship, acceptance...love.

Love, the symbol permanently branded on my forehead, and the one thing I grew up without. Until I met Naruto, I did not even know what love was. If ever I said I loved myself, and only myself, I was deceiving the very person I claimed I loved. I never even knew what it was until my fight against Squad 7. Naruto would have killed me to protect his friends - and yet now I am counted among those he regards as such. I was told that he stopped at nothing to try and rescue me when I was captured by the Akatsuki, and he was the first to volunteer his chakra to bring me back to life. I didn't understand why he cared so much - in fact, I still don't. I think, as long as I live, I shall never fully understand Uzumaki Naruto.

But one thing I know - Nine Tails or no Nine Tails, there is more light and warmth in Naruto than there is darkness.

There is more light in him than the sun.


End file.
